Today is a day of national mourning in the Netherlands.

One minute of silence at 4.00 pm in the Netherlands. We are mourning the victims of flight MH17. We still don’t know what happened, but we know they are all gone.

As I’m writing this, the planes with the bodies are landing in The Netherlands, hopefully bringing a little relief in the dark hours of the friends and family members of the victims.

Yesterday, the Dutch Minister of Foreign affairs spoke before the UN. An emotional, eloquent and urgent message to the rest of the world:

“To my dying day I will not understand that it took so much time for the rescue workers to be allowed to do their difficult jobs and that human remains should be used in a political game. I hope the world will not have to witness this again, any time in the future.”

I hope so too…

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Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: YouTube screenshot